Virtual Travel New England

Guest Author - Lynn Newcomb Gaziano

Today the idea of virtual travel is not a new one and we take it for granted. Back in the early eighties I bought my first home computer, a 386, and did not sleep for a year. Back then there was no AOL, no Microsoft network and no way to access the Internet other than a Unix shell account. I was an electronic technician at the time so I understood the basic Unix commands and protocols necessary to get onto the Internet. There were no ads on web pages then and no such thing as email spam. The Internet still resembled the ARPANET. It was really just a network of computers that mostly consisted of government, scientific community and college universities from around the world.

Iíll never forget stumbling upon one of the first largely graphical sites available at that time. It was facts and photos related to the Vatican. It was full of large, high-resolution photographs of the Sistine chapel, St Peter's Basilica and more. I guess my family while growing up, wasnít big on magazine subscriptions, and we werenít Catholic, so I had never seen Rome before. I was up all night, staring wide-eyed at all the gorgeously detailed images at that site. My connection often dropped leaving me frantically trying to get back online and back to the Vatican site at the same page that I was on when I lost connection.

That memory of my first stumbling journeys into the budding virtual world has left a lasting impression on me. I still laugh when I remember myself at work on many mornings with bleary eyes and frequent long, slow yawns into my test computerís keyboard. It was an old XT that ran on Basic, a computer language that most folks these days wouldnít recognize.

Because of my early love of virtual travel, and because BellaOnline has readers from all around the US and the world, many who will not be able to get here in person, I will be presenting Virtual New England Travel here at the New England Travel Site. Iíll do my best to accurately describe various locations and provide some relevant, high quality photos. Hopefully you will feel as if you are actually here taking this journey with me, and come away feeling connected to a new place, as I did back in those early days at the Vatican related site.

If you have New England locations that youíd like to have a virtual tour of, contact me here and Iíll do my best to get them posted at the site within a reasonable time frame.